Baseball's No. 1 Prospect Being Put in Big Spot on Tuesday in Spring Training Contest
As he continues to try to make the Opening Day roster, Baltimore Orioles' top prospect (and baseball's No. 1 prospect) Jackson Holliday will get a chance to show what he can do at the top of the order on Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers.
Per the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:
Holliday will play second base and bat leadoff in Tuesday's split-squad game against the Tigers.
ANALYSIS
Holliday will get a chance to show what he can do atop the batting order early on in his long-shot bid to make the Opening Day roster. The top prospect is 0-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts in his first two Grapefruit League games this spring. While he figures to end up back at shortstop eventually, the team is opening up another path to at-bats for the youngster at second base.
Holliday is primarily a shortstop, but the Orioles appear primed to utilize American League Rookie of the Year Gunnar Henderson at short this year. Second base appears more open, as the team also has prospect Jordan Westburg there, so it should be a good battle between him and Holliday.
Holliday hit .323 last season, finishing the year at Triple-A. He hit 12 home runs, drove in 75 runs and also stole 24 bases. He's just 20 years old.
The following comes from his MLB.com prospect profile:
The combination of nature and nurture certainly come into play, with growing up around the game clearly helping Holliday’s overall skillset. He has an extremely advanced approach at the plate, and he showed it off by walking more than twice as much as he struck out during his debut last summer. He has a simple left-handed stroke he got back to after his swing got a little long last summer, allowing him make more hard contact than ever, with plenty of power coming organically from his swing.
With strength he added before his senior year, and with more to come, Holliday has also gotten faster and is a consistently plus runner. There’s an up arrow next to his arm strength as well and that, along with his improved quickness, means he should be able to play shortstop for a long time.
His father (Matt Holliday) played 15 years in the big leagues with the Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics, and New York Yankees. He spent part of eight years in St. Louis, six with Colorado, one with New York and part of one with Oakland. He was a seven-time All-Star selection, received MVP votes in eight different seasons and finished fifth in the 2004 National League Rookie of the Year voting.
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